Adam Wainwright helped lead the Cardinals to the World Series. / Jeff Curry, USA TODAY Sports

by Stephen Borelli, USA TODAY Sports

by Stephen Borelli, USA TODAY Sports

The Boston Red Sox may have won the World Series, but the St. Louis Cardinals top the baseball world in USA TODAY Sports' major league franchise rankings highlighted in USA TODAY Sports' annual Hot Stove Preview, a 64-page tabloid magazine on newsstands Tuesday.

St. Louis scored 133 points, 15 ahead of the second-placed Texas Rangers, over our nine categories based mostly on performance during the last five seasons (2009-2013) but also significantly factoring in this year's win total.

"This is a special, special organization," says Cardinals third baseman David Freese, the hometown hero and the 2011 World Series MVP. "The fans are great. The clubhouse (chemistry) is great. And when you look around, you can see that it's set up for a long, long time."

The Cardinals scored especially high in our player development category, seeing a major league high 31 players they drafted or signed as non-drafted free agents in 2007 or later reach the big leagues. That list includes 2012 All-Star right-hander Lance Lynn, 2013 All-Star second baseman Matt Carpenter, 2013 postseason hero Michael Wacha and several other crucial members of the 2013 team that reached the World Series (closer Trevor Rosenthal, starter Shelby Miller, shortstop Pete Kozma and first baseman Matt Adams).

St. Louis also tied for the best overall record in 2013 (97-65 for a maximum of 10 points in that category) and racked up a major league high 30 points in our postseason category. The Cardinals have reached the playoffs four times in five years, winning one World Series and getting as far as the National League Championship Series three times.

The team that St. Louis beat in the 2011 World Series, the Rangers (118 points), scored well by reaching three postseasons, including the World Series twice in five years, establishing continuity in the front office (general manager Jon Daniels) and on the field (manager Ron Washington) and compiling the second best overall record since 2009 (457-354, .564). The Rangers also signed a wealth of impressive talent internationally, including pitchers Yu Darvish and Martin Perez, outfielder Leonys Martin and infielder Jurickson Profar.

The San Francisco Giants (113), Atlanta Braves (107) and New York Yankees (106) round out the top five, the Giants and Braves capitalizing on the performance of especially strong draft picks (Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner for the Giants; Craig Kimbrel, Freddie Freeman, Jason Heyward for the Braves) and strong regular-season success. The Giants rode their core of young talent to two World Series (2010 and 2012).

The Yankees, with their unrivaled resources and franchise value, won a World Series (2009) and compiled the best overall record (475-335, .586) over our analysis period.